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PACA

At 8.20 pm Pakatan Harapan MPs, together with Warisan ambushed UMNO BN on the vote of the Domestic Trade Ministry budget. The vote strategy was formed during the PKR pre-counsel meeting last week. The idea originated and was executed by YB Manivannan (PKR MP for Kapar) and endorsed by YB Dato Johari Abdul (PKR Chief Whip of Sungai Petani). Party whips from DAP, Amanah, Bersatu and Warisan were then brought into the loop and coordinated.

We decided to send a strong message to the minister that the rakyat is suffering high cost of living and oil prices, which is under the purview of his ministry.

When the bell was rung for a vote, we clearly outnumbered UMNO BN by 7 votes. The counting process started and the counting forms were eventually signed. After that point, other UMNO BN MPs and ministers rushed in and the signed documents were retracted. The process delayed further until they had enough numbers. This is a blatant abuse of the counting process. One of the MP jokingly warned the Speaker not to “turn off the lights” and fix the vote. To add fuel to our anger, and despite our strong protests, the Domestic Trade minister can be seen in the counting area to “supervise” the vote count. The counting process took an inordinate long 15 minutes to count.

The final outcome was 52 for UMNO BN and 51 for Pakatan Harapan.

Ultimately UMNO BN was saved by two senior PAS leaders who abstained from voting. The two senior PAS leaders are Ustaz Idris Ahmad of Bukit Gantang (vice president of PAS) and Hajjah Siti Zailah of Rantau Panjang (head of Kelantan PAS women wing). Once more PAS senior leaders showed their true colours that they are 100% pro UMNO BN. In a surprise move, six of the PAS junior backbenchers voted with us against UMNO BN. One of them explained to me that the high cost of living is a rakyat issue and as such he will vote with his conscience. The message is loud and clear, prepare for 3 corner fights so long as pro UMNO leaders are in charge of PAS.

After the vote was read, we demanded an explanation from the Speaker. Our legitimate protests were dismissed. The hall broke into a chant “TIPU! TIPU! TIPU!”. We walked out en mass and gave a press conference.

If they can blatantly influence the vote in the Dewan, what more in the counting halls of GE14. I therefore appeal to all my readers to become Polling and Counting Agents and protect our ballot boxes.

Good morning. I had a very busy day yesterday and as such didn’t have time to put up a posting.

So here is a quick recap; yesterday I joined several MPs and colleagues at INVOKE Malaysia to launch the PACA (Polling Agent, Counting Agent) manual booklet prepared by YB Rafizi Ramli and his INVOKE team.

PACA is basically the MOST important line of defence against cheating at elections. At the most basic level, we need to place enough counting agents to monitor each and every ballot box during the vote count process of the general election.

It is not enough to attend Bersih rallies for one day and then hope that the government will change its electoral process. We actually have to do real work of organising, training and mobilising some 100,000 PACAs in order to have a fair shot to win GE14.

The math is simple, we need an average of 350 PACA officers per Parliamentary seat. If we want to win 112 Parliament seats (for a simple majority in Parliament) we need (112 seats x 350 PACA) 39,200 PACA officers to monitor each and every ballot box.

Because we need to allow PACA officers breaks during election day, we need to roughly double the amount of trained PACA officers to 80,000. After factoring a 20% no show on election day (it happens!), we need to organise, train and mobilise 100,000 PACA.

It is a Herculean task and INVOKE Malaysia is focusing our very limited resources to defend against ballot box cheating for 30 to 50 marginal seats. At the moment, we already have 10,000 registered volunteers which we hope to convert into fully trained PACA officers in the coming months.

In view of the above and moving beyond the street protest mentality, INVOKE has embarked on training and mobilising of PACA some 2 months ago. Working together with a dedicated group of experienced volunteers of past elections (these are the real unsung heroes), INVOKE has started PACA training events around Malaysia. During this Ramadhan period, Rafizi and team have been criss crossing PACA events from Kedah to Johor.

Yesterday’s launch of “Buku Panduan PACA” represents a new milestone of our overall PACA efforts. The book is available in Malay at the moment (an English version will be out soon) for RM20 and can be bought here.

Please continue to donate and volunteer time to support INVOKE Malaysia; ultimately we can only change Malaysia with your support, action and sweat.